Retail checkout operations, have used bar code scanning for many years, and bar code scanning has proven to be of great value in numerous other applications as well. Improved efficiency and accuracy of bar code scanning typically leads to improved efficiency of operations in which such scanning is used. One promising bar code scanning technology is imaging scanning, involving the capture and processing of a visual image of a bar code by an imaging device such as a digital camera, in order to extract bar code information. One important aspect of providing efficient imaging bar code scanning is the ability to quickly locate the bar code. The process of imaging scanning is essentially the analysis of a highly detailed photographic image. Filtering and manipulation of the image can help to simplify the processing, but analysis is typically a highly computationally intensive task. The initial capturing of the image typically does not distinguish the bar code from surrounding features of the image. That is, an image within a particular field of view is captured, and then processing is performed to identify and analyze the portion of the image representing the bar code.